This is hard....

My little girl is having a rough week at school & I want to make it "all better" more than anything in the whole world...but I can't! McKenna loves being at home, and I can tell being gone all day is starting to take a toll on her. Today she forgot her lunch, and when I got back up to the school to bring it to her today she was already eating a school lunch. I came up to her lunch table to talk to her for a few minutes & when she saw me she gave me a hug and then started crying!! It was a soft, sad little cry, and it broke my heart. All she said was "I miss you SOOOOO much mommy". I know that's all it is....but it just broke my heart to see her so sad.

Otherwise, she is doing really well adjusting to school. She has already made several new friends, and her teacher already has GLOWING remarks about her. I know this is just part of the "growing pains" that come with the first year of school, but that doesn't make it any easier :-(

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* In other news.....
As many of you may already know, Jonathan was in a car accident yesterday while he was on a business trip to Nebraska. He was in another employee's car that got hit on the passenger side, right where he was sitting. Unfortunately, he and his co-workers spent most of their time in Nebraska in the ER! He has a pretty bad concussion, but he will be OK. Thankfully, one of the girls he works with felt well enough to drive home last night, so he is home now.

If you think of me this week...pray for me. We were planning on doing some fun stuff with the kids this weekend & I really hope Jon feels up to it by then. Crap like this always happens to us when we try to plan fun things & I'm really sick of it.....

Back to school!

I can't believe it...but my BABY started Kindergarten this week! Oh- I cry just typing this!! I really didn't think I would feel like this, but I think I'm just trying to come to terms with how fast McKenna's "babyhood" flew by. Maybe I also feel a bit little guilty because she didn't get to be my baby for long. She had two siblings before she had a chance to blink-LOL! I guess I feel like she has had to do a lot of things on the "fast track" because she is the oldest. Poor baby!

However, she could care less that I'm an emotional wreck this week, because she is LOVING Kindergarten!


All ready to go!

What a confident little kindergartner :-)

McKenna and Carter. These two have been friends from birth!

McKenna already loves her teacher.

One last shot...... LOL!

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Mr. "Chan-The-Man" also had his first day of school today. He really likes school & has asked to go back all summer (my kids sure didn't get that gene from their mother-lol!). He was SO sad yesterday when McKenna got to go to school and he didn't. But, this morning was a different story. He was up and dressed by 7:30 a.m and ready to go! As soon as we pulled up to the school he said "LET'S GO McKENNA"! It was too cute :-)

Do you think they are just a little excited?

What a happy guy!


Chan and daddy!

My "Mookey Girl" turned 2!

Around here, Maya is more often referred to as "Mook", "Mookey", "Mookity", or the ever popular "Mookey Mama"! Why? I have no idea! It's just one of those silly names that stuck I guess. At any rate, the "Mookey Mama" celebrated the big "2" with a little bash at a local kid play place on Saturday. We had a great time & the kids got plenty of exercise that day!

The "theme" (if you can call it that) for her party was of course...SHOES! The girl is OBSESSED with shoes (I keep forgetting to do a post about her love affair with shoes...that one will be coming soon). Any shoes! Her shoes, my shoes...everyone's shoes are fair game to her. :-) So, it was only fitting that we throw her a "shoe party". Complete with a shoe cake, shoe napkins, shoe paper plates and even little tiny flip-flop candles for her birthday cake. It was a hoot!


The birthday girl having fun!

Wheeee!!!!!!!!!

Coming out of the big bounce house.


Maya and cousin Owen playing a game. Don't they look so cute together?


Me and my birthday girly!



The shoe cake...just right for my little princess :-)
















THE FIRST TWO YEARS...

8/11/05

8/11/06


8/11/07

It's 1:00 a.m....

...and I had too much coffee after dinner tonight!

I'm also losing sleep because I'm consumed with guilt over my recent summertime addiction. I thought I should confess it to you all, so that I can be accountable to you from now on-LOL! I need you all to keep me on the straight and narrow from here on out...OK? Alright, here goes...

My name is Amber...and I'm addicted to S'mores.


Seriously...I've had way to many to count in recent days, and the S'more supplies just never seem to run out over here. It would help if the kids liked them, but they don't (little freaks!). I'm starting to wonder if these three actually came from my womb....who doesn't like S'mores? (Don't answer that if you are one of the few weirdos that doesn't love them. I'll be forced to disown you!). So, if anyone wants to indulge with me, please, come on over! I swear that once this bag of marshmallows is gone...I'm DONE! Really....I can give it up at any moment....I just can stand the thought of throwing the rest of the supplies in the garbage. I'm in complete control over here...I promise.....

Do you think there is a 12 step program for people like me?

Fire Alarms and Four Year Olds.

This has been one of the toughest weeks of my entire summer so far. I'm not sure if it's the heat, the absolute boredom my kids are experiencing, or just a funky shift in the universe. Something has happened to my kids this week that has made them go absolutely nutty! I'm SO not kidding!

The following story may prove it...

This past Tuesday my friend Karen invited me to join her and her friend Julie for some fun at the pool. They take their kids together all the time & I kept hearing these stories of how much fun they had together, so I thought I'd give it a shot! I had been avoiding the pool this whole summer because it is still one of those things that just always seems to be more work than it's really worth. It breaks my heart that every other mother on the face of the universe enjoys "pool days" with their kids, but I really don't . It's anything but relaxing, and it's usually not much fun when it's all said and done. However...I thought I'd give it a try and hope for the best!

We decided to meet at 1:00, but because I'm a "smart" mom I had my troops dressed in their swimming gear at 10:45. We were packed and ready to go by 11:00 a.m! We had a few stops to make on our way to the pool, but I was confident we would actually be early this time (for those of you that know me that is a rare thing). One of the stops we had to make was at McKenna and Chandler's school. Tuesday was "residency checks" day. So, we headed to the school with our two proofs of residence for a quick "in-and-out" stop...or so I thought.

When the kids saw me pull up to the school they immediately started crying, like I had just pulled some cruel trick on them. "Yeah, thanks mom, tell us we are going swimming...then take us to SCHOOL!" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO", they screamed! After I told them we were just running in for a QUICK errand, they calmed down and reluctantly followed me to the school office. They were anything but patient because they had "fun" on the brain, and school was just NOT where they wanted to be. After waiting in line for a few minutes I arrived at the front of the line where the school secretary handed me ALL of McKenna's enrollment paperwork to fill out...A-G-A-I-N. I told her I already filled out all the paperwork BACK IN MAY, to which she replied "I know...you will have to fill it out again"! What? Are you kidding me?

So, I headed down the hall to a long line of tables and chairs, with three wound up children, to fill out the same damn paperwork that I had already filled out once before (you know, when I hired a babysitter to watch all my kids so I could fill out said papers). Wonderful!

Some twenty minutes later I was done filling out the papers, but I was dangerously close to a mental break down! I actually threatened the kids with going straight home for naps if they did One. More. Thing! I was already spent, and I still had the whole day ahead of me. With one final threat, I parked them on a bench right outside the office and told them to "WAIT HERE and DON'T MOVE"! With that, I headed into the office to turn in my papers. While I was waiting in line inside the office the FIRE ALARM went off...which sent everyone, but the secretary, into a panic (apparently the wise old secretary knew something I didn't). Before I knew it people were scurrying around and the school maintenance man was frantic to find out what was going on. About this time my four year old son started crying and ran into the office. I hugged him and told him everything was fine and sent him back to the bench to wait. His tears seemed to dry up quickly with that reassurance, which seemed a bit odd to me...hmmmmm. My turn came, and amid the blaring sirens, the secretary gave me McKenna's classroom assignment, and then told me I needed to go over to the OTHER office (across town) to do the same thing for Chandler (because he is in early childhood & they have their own office)! I was thinking, "Um, sure, I'll do that right after I rip out all my toenails with a pair of pliers...because that would seriously be easier for me to voluntarily do at this point". Needless to say, I didn't go to the Early Childhood office next.

Nope! I did however, exit the school just as I saw the school maintenance man discover that the fire alarm lever right above my son's head was the one that had been pulled. You know, the one that sent the entire building into mass hysteria, and had the entire fire department on the way! Yep, that's my Channy! Never a dull moment I tell ya...never a dull moment! But, to be fair, he DID NOT leave the bench where I told him to sit. Next time I'll choose the bench next to the ficus tree ;-).

The drama didn't end there, but I'll not bore you with anymore details. Suffice it to say that I had a rough afternoon. When it was all said and done, I ended up at Karen's house at 1:15, and I think we made it to the pool by 1:45. So, you could say that I was running "on-schedule" that day. At this point in my life I'm about as "on-time" and "dependable" as Southwest Airlines, and Amtrak!

Oh, and the pool....the kids LOVED it!

We'll be going back really soon!

16.8 fluid oz..........

...of Suave Kids "Orange Mango Tango" Shampoo sure does create quite a bubble bath!


*Please note: In the first three pictures there is NO WATER in the tub!

After Mr. Chandler decided to add a little extra "bubbly" (the entire brand new bottle of shampoo) to the bath water, I had to drain the tub to try and start over.


Although, trying to get rid of 16.8 oz of shampoo bubbles isn't as easy as it sounds!


But, the kids sure did have a good time!

It was kinda hard to be too mad about this incident when I couldn't stop laughing :-).

*Before I was married, I had a hundred theories about raising children and no children. Now, I have three children and no theories.
- John Wilmot